What the Future Holds
by Cyanide-Ocean
Summary: Aubrey and Chloe have been friends since they were kids, but the summer before they began high school, Aubrey had to move back to Indiana from Florida and hasn't seen her friend since.


"I'll see you next year!" Chloe hugged her friend. "We'll be 9th graders!"

"And over the summer too when we're both around at the same time," Aubrey promised.

After a final hug, the two friends waved as they parted ways to go home and that was the last time Aubrey saw the other girl. Although they kept in touch as much as they could, their conversations became shorter until they dwindled into being non-existent when the blonde became busy with helping her family pack as her father was changing law firms and they were moving back to Gary, Indiana - same place she was born. She had lived in Indiana for a few years before moving to Florida in the middle of her grade school years where she met Chloe. Chloe hadn't been shy in the least, being the first to approach the new blonde who most others kept their distance from. Some already knew of her through their parents, but everyone who stayed away from her all agreed that the new girl seemed arrogant, uptight, and too reclusive. Chloe didn't take these as cues to stay away from Aubrey as she took hold of the girl's hands and introduced herself cheerfully.

Those memories with Chloe were ones that Aubrey cherished and would replay in her head when she was alone. She wondered how her friend was doing and how high school had gone for her and most of all if they'd ever see each other again. She wondered if Chloe ever still thought about her or if the other redhead had long since forgotten about her. Since they had said their last goodbyes to each other, Aubrey had attended school year round and was now preparing to attend her first year at Barden University to study law as an undergraduate student. Maybe while she was in college, since she'd be able to move about without being under the scrutiny of her father's watchful eye, she would look for a young woman named Chloe Beale.

"The car's ready - let's go!" Mr. Posen called to her from downstairs.

Aubrey gave her room one more once over and triple checked to make sure she had her plane ticket, passport, cell phone, and wallet on hand as she closed her door and headed outside to where the car was sitting idly and climbed inside. The car ride was made in silence as she got out, exchanging a terse goodbye with her father who warned her to do well if she wanted to succeed and go on to law school after before he drove off, leaving Aubrey to navigate through the airport to get through security and find her gate herself.

She sat there, back straight, hands folded neatly in her lap, and her eyes cast downwards as her mind drifted to the possibilities of how her first year at Barden could go. She knew she'd have a heavy workload and would have to devote all her time to her studies, but this didn't disappoint her nor was it something she dreaded as she hadn't had any other ideas of how to spend her time anyway. Aubrey knew there were parties that the typical college student would go to, drink, get into some trouble, slack off on homework some nights, meet boys. But none of that appealed to the blonde and she knew that she couldn't afford the luxury of relaxing and loafing around as some of the other students could if she wanted to maintain an impeccable GPA.

She watched out the small window how the airport beneath the plan got smaller and smaller as if she were zooming out on a Google Earth satellite map until she could no longer see anything but an ocean of fluffy looking clouds. Aubrey pulled out her bag from under her seat and took out one of her textbooks and opened it up. The font was, as expected, ant sized with small images on the boarders of the text with short captions to accompany them. She flipped through the pages as she skimmed over the text to get an idea of what she'd be looking at later on once her classes started up so she could be prepared.

Aubrey pulled out her cellphone when she'd finally arrived at Barden that morning to inform her father that she'd arrived and the moving truck with her things had arrived as well just like he'd instructed for her to do. She checked in at the residence life office to get her key and walked back to the truck as the movers helped her bring her things up to her room. Upon opening the door, she noticed the room was bare and assumed her roommate would be moving in at a later time that day or perhaps even a different day. Picking one half of the room for herself, the movers left her things scattered about her side of the room for her to unpack and organize as she pleased. Aubrey gave them a tip and thanked them for their help as they drove off.

It took her about an hour to arrange all of her belongings to her liking then left to go out and buy whatever else she still needed. When she returned to her room with her small trashcan that she placed under her desk, her roommate still hadn't arrived. She hadn't checked her email prior to leaving to get their name, but figured it didn't matter who it was as Aubrey hadn't planned on spending much time in her room anyway if she found herself a nice place in the corner of the library to work, which was her next destination. With a textbook and notebook for taking notes tucked under one of her arms, and a pencil case filled with some pens, pencils, and a highlighter in her hand, she crossed the campus to where the library was located and walked through the doors. She scanned the room, looking for a vacant table that was as far away from the entrance as possible to reduce the amount of noise and motion she'd catch out of her peripheral vision and once she'd scoped one out, she settled down in the chair and began to scribble down notes for the rest of the afternoon.

She only realized how late it had gotten when her stomach growled, startling her as she looked up to see if anyone else had heard it as well, but no one had paid her any mind much to her silent gratitude. Aubrey walked back to campus, hoping that whoever her roommate would be wouldn't mind tolerating her. The blonde began to worry about what if she became so stressed while she was there that she vomited. Whoever had the misfortune of being her roommate would surely bolt from the room completely repulsed and never want to go back inside again. If only she'd had Chloe's number she could call her friend up for some uplifting words of reassurance that everything would be okay. That was something the redhead had been fantastic at when they were younger as Chloe knew how easily stressed out Aubrey could become because of the pressure from the demands her father made of her, and because of her academics and needing straight A's. Chloe never judged her for her quirks, like her need to have everything organized at all times, her overachieving nature which many others mistook as vanity and wanting to appear superior to everyone else when that wasn't the case at all, but most of all, Chloe knew about her stress vomiting - had witnessed it before - but never once turned in the other direction and ran. Instead the redhead had stuck by her, helping to get her cleaned up and would give her a hug after, promising everything would be okay. Having some reassurance that everything would turn out alright from her friend was what Aubrey had wanted more than anything right then.

"Chloe…" she mumbled under her breath as she walked into her dorm room, thinking aloud.

"Yeah?"

Aubrey's head snapped up since she hadn't expected a reply and felt rather embarrassed that her new roommate's first impression of her would be someone who talked out loud to themselves. She opened her mouth to explain, but the words stuck in the back of her throat, refusing to be spoken as she stood there dumbfounded.

"Aubrey?" The woman standing before her looked just as astonished. "Is that you?"

The blonde could only nod slowly as a wide grin formed on her face.

"Bree!" Chloe exclaimed, rushing over to her and threw her arms around Aubrey's waist. "I've missed you so much! I didn't know how to get in touch with you after you moved because, well no cell phones, and then I thought maybe you'd forgotten about me, and I was wondering how you've been and I just really, really missed you!" She buried her face into the older woman's shoulder as tears of joy streamed down her face, causing Aubrey's eyes to well up with tears of their own.

"I could never forget you," the older woman promised. It was impossible for her to ever be able to forget someone as incredible as the redhead who'd always made her the happiest. "I was just thinking about you, Chlo," she murmured, hugging her friend tightly. "I've missed you so much as well."

After a much needed long hug, Chloe stood back, her smile stretching from ear to ear. "You look beautiful."

"I, uh, thanks," Aubrey felt a blush spread across her face at the sudden compliment as her expression mirrored her friend's. "You look amazing yourself."

Chloe only continued to surprise Aubrey as she pressed her lips against the blonde's tenderly, lingering there for a moment before pulling away. "I've been wanting to do that for a long time," she laughed shyly. "I'd been meaning to tell you that I really liked you over the summer before we started high school, but then I never got the chance before you moved and I had chickened out because I was afraid you'd think that crushes at that age were silly."

The blonde couldn't help from smiling at the redhead as she explained, "Really? After all this time?"

"After all this time," Chloe repeated quietly, blushing profusely causing the older woman feel overjoyed.

This time it was Aubrey who leaned down and kissed Chloe, and she knew that everything would be okay.


End file.
